


Where the Monsters Are

by ohwise1ne



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: 404 Ben Solo Not Found, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Black Mirror Fusion, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, But all the sex will be consensual, Dark, Dubious Consent, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Choking, Inspired by Black Mirror, Kylo Ren is Not Nice, Let me know if I need to add more tags, Manipulation, Misuse of virtual reality, Possessive Kylo Ren, Power Imbalance, Rey is essentially his prisoner
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-10-03 23:56:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17293766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohwise1ne/pseuds/ohwise1ne
Summary: “I knew you’d be a difficult one to break,” he murmurs, almost tenderly, as he examines her frozen face. “But they always do, in the end.”His colleagues may despise him, but Ben gets his revenge every night in a virtual world where their avatars are completely at his mercy. The latest addition to his crew is his lovely new programmer, Rey. But what will he do when she refuses to play the game?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I can't get this out of my brain, so here it is. Inspired by the U.S.S. Callister episode of Black Mirror. 
> 
> This is going to be darker than the other stories I've published here. Mind the tags.

Rey doesn’t remember going to bed.

That’s her first thought, when she is jolted out of unconsciousness. She tears into the world with a gasping breath – like she’d been drowning, on the verge of slipping under forever, and suddenly yanked back to the surface.

She doesn’t remember going to bed. And yet she is here, in a bed. Awakening.

It’s not her bed. That’s her second thought. The sheets are scratchy. A blinding fluorescent line shines overhead, illuminating the aluminum walls. It is a small room – hardly larger than a closet. Industrial-looking.

Her heart begins to race. Had she been in an accident? Is this a hospital? But no – there are no IVs. No hospital gown.

Although her outfit is – not something she can ever remember wearing before. A bright red, skintight bodysuit. Tentatively, Rey runs her fingers over the material. It’s smooth. Shiny. Like Spandex.

Where the _fuck_ is she?

Rey climbs out of bed. Her limbs ache, like they haven’t gotten much use in some time. It occurs to her that she might have been drugged, and panic begins to climb up her throat. How long was she unconscious for? Had anything happened to her while she’d been asleep?

_Who the hell did this to her?_

The metal of the floor is cold against her bare feet. There is no knob on the door – Rey immediately starts looking around for a keypad. To her surprise, however, the door slides straight open as soon as she approaches it.

Rey pokes her head out into an empty corridor. It is like a long tube, the floors and walls constructed of the same metal plates as her tiny prison. Machinery hums faintly in the distance.

Definitely industrial, then. Perhaps some kind of warehouse. It is well-maintained – everything is spotless – so it can’t be abandoned.

There has to be someone here who can help her.

Before she can develop a better plan, Rey is already racing down the corridor. It’s hard to think through her panic, cloying and thick. There are dozens of identical doors on either side, but none of them slide open at her prompting. When she reaches its end, she finds herself hurtling down another corridor. More doors. All locked.

She wonders if she should cry out for assistance. Would that just alert whoever brought her here? Or is she spoiling a precious opportunity to get help?

Down yet another hallway, Rey skids to a halt in front of two large double doors. Different from the others. And to her surprise, these ones actually open.

Rey takes one look around and decides that – yes, she is _definitely_ drugged.

There is no other explanation for what her eyes are telling her.

She appears to have stepped onto an observation deck. A huge one, practically the size of her entire studio apartment. A massive control panel wraps around the room, with brightly colored lights and screens that flash with infrared maps.

And on the other side of a thick glass wall, her mind has conjured up a sprawling view of outer space.

This warehouse appears to be flying. Hurtling through the galaxy. At a remarkably fast speed, judging from the way the stars outside are moving in and out of view.

It is suddenly hard to breathe. Rey leans against the doorway, dizzy. A side effect from the drugs, maybe.

“Ah, shit. Another newcomer.”

It’s not her proudest moment, the way she shrieks in surprise. One of the seats near the control panel spins around, revealing a man in a similar jumpsuit.

“Poor dear. She’s in shock.” A female voice, this time. A blonde woman in blue walks into view, shaking her head.

“Please.” Rey’s voice is raspy. “You need to help me. I think I’ve been drugged.”

“Do you think you could share?” says the man in the seat. “I haven’t had any blow in _months.”_

The blonde woman rounds on him. “Shut up, Dameron. Can’t you see she’s petrified?”

 _Dameron._ Rey blinks. She knows that name. Dameron. _Poe_ Dameron. That’s… the name of her new boss, isn’t it?

Rey stumbles forward to get a better look at him. He is holding a bottle of vodka, and he takes a great swig straight from the mouth of it.

There’s no doubt about it. This is the man who had just brought her coffee the day before. He’d sat on the edge of her desk, laughing.

Rey sees red.

“What the _hell_ did you do to me?” Her voice is louder than she intended. High-pitched. She sounds terrified, even to her own ears.

“Me?” Dameron barks out a bitter laugh. “I don’t have any power here, sweetheart. None of us do.”

Rey whirls to face the woman, who is still examining her with an infuriating amount of pity. “What the fuck is he talking about? Do you know what’s going on?”

“You might want to have a drink for this.”

“I don’t drink,” she snaps. “And I’m not about to start when I’m – when I’m _hallucinating_ from some kind of mystery drug!”

The woman sighs. As she rubs her temples, her nails glimmer in the overhead light. They are bright pink. Bedazzled.

Rey’s jaw drops open, her mind rushing to make the connection. “You – you work with me too, don’t you? At the front desk?”

“I’m still at the front desk?” The woman frowns. She almost seems annoyed. “I would have thought by now that they’d moved me into HR.”

“Don’t you remember me?” Rey asks desperately. “We spoke. Just this morning. I forgot my key card.”

She smirks. “I bet I gave you a hard time. They hired me to answer the phones. Not to be a damn doorman.”

Rey feels the beginnings of a panic attack crowding the edges of her vision. These people are no help. But of _course_ they’re no help – they’re hallucinations. “So maybe I took a fall,” she says to herself, starting to pace. “On my way out to lunch. That’s the last thing I remember – leaving for lunch. Maybe I’m in some kind of – some kind of _coma_ – and I’ll wake up any minute now.“

“You’re not in a coma.” It’s Dameron who speaks this time. “And you’re not waking up.”

“Be gentle with her,” the woman hisses.

“Give me a break, Phasma. She’s going to find out sooner or later.”

Dameron rises from the chair, a little unsteadily. He shoves the vodka bottle at his secretary as he moves past her on his way to Rey.

“I’m sorry he did this to you too. You must have made him angry, somehow.”

“Angry?” She frowns, genuinely confused. “Who are you talking about?”

Dameron clenches his jaw. “Kylo Ren.”

Rey can’t help it. She laughs in his face. It’s certain now – she has either lost her mind, or she’s having the world’s strangest fever dream. “Kylo Ren is a video game character.”

“Yes.” Dameron looks Rey in the eye, very serious. “And so are we.”

Something about his tone makes her falter. “Of course we are,” she says. “I suppose we’re on our way to invade some unsuspecting planet?”

“It depends. We’ll do whatever that bastard wants us to do.”

“You can’t be serious.” _But he doesn’t look like he’s joking._ “Kylo Ren isn’t real. He’s a character – a fabrication. In your own company’s video game.”

“And did you have a chance to meet the asshole who created him?”

Rey remembers the shy programmer in the corner office. Smiling tentatively across the room. Their fingers brushing accidentally as they reached for the same donut. “Of course I did,” she says, heart fluttering. “Ben Solo is the only reason I wanted to work at First Order Games.”

Dameron flinches visibly. “Well, we don’t call him that here. That’s the first rule. His name is Kylo Ren – Supreme Leader, if you’re addressing him directly.”

It should be funny. This is her boss – one of the most successful young professionals in the Bay Area. The CEO of the hottest game development start-up in the world.

But his tone is not funny. His eyes – deep and haunted – they are not the eyes of a man who is kidding around. Rey feels goosebumps race down her spine.

“Supreme Leader,” she repeats. She meant to sound disbelieving, but her voice is somehow laced with fear. “And what are the other rules?”

“There’s only one,” Dameron says. “We do whatever the fuck he tells us to.”

Nausea roils in her gut. Rey looks back at the secretary – Phasma – with the hope that they can share a meaningful glance. An understanding that this guy has completely lost his marbles.

Instead, she is looking at Rey with tears in her eyes. It’s an expression so uncharacteristic for the icy, ill-tempered woman who works at First Order’s front desk that Rey is nearly winded by it.

“He’s figured out how to trap us here.” Phasma’s voice is soft with dejection. Like a woman who has resigned herself to her fate. “Well, not _us._ We’re new people, really. Our former selves are off living their happy lives in the real world. Totally oblivious to what that fucker does with us on his laptop when he goes home.”

“His laptop?” Rey looks back and forth between them. “Are you suggesting we’re in some kind of program right now?”

“He’s discovered a way to build – well, _clones_ would be the term most familiar to you. Exact replicas of our real-life personas, constructed from our individual genomes.”

“But that’s genius.” Rey’s mind starts to race, the starkness of this strange hallucination temporarily forgotten. “You could preserve a person’s intelligence forever that way. Give them immortality.”

Dameron snorts. “Or build digital recreations of everyone who’s ever wronged you and torture them for the rest of their existence.”

She halts, stomach going cold. “Torture?”

“He’s a monster,” Phasma hisses.

_“Ben Solo?”_

“Don’t call him that,” Dameron snaps. “It’ll end badly for all of us.”

Phasma drops her voice low as she walks toward them. “He stole our DNA. Mine came from a toothbrush.”

“Salad fork,” Dameron says, shrugging.

Rey remembers Solo passing by her desk, offering to take her empty coffee cup to the trash. Her stomach lurches.

“That’s enough.” Shaking her head, Rey starts to back away from them. “I appreciate your generosity. Really, I do. But I’m going to go back to that room I woke up in, shut the door tight and fall asleep. When I wake up, I’ll be back in my flat, and all of this will be over.”

Dameron nearly trips over himself to block her path. “You can’t do that,” he says, breathing heavily. “We’re supposed to be here when he arrives.”

“Too bad.” Rey moves to push past him, but he grabs her arm.

“I’m serious.” His eyes are suddenly full of terror. Rey has never seen a look like that in a person’s face before. Despite her feigned confidence, the sight of it makes her insides contract with fear. “He’ll punish you. He’ll punish all of us.”

“You’re a hallucination,” Rey snaps, pushing past him, “and I’m going back to bed.”

She doesn’t even make it to the door before the music starts.

Horns begin to sound all around her at full blast, a thundering march that is accompanied by rolling drums. Rey nearly jumps out of her skin. When she whirls around, both Dameron and Phasma have positioned themselves at the front of the cockpit, posing in a stiff salute.

From underneath a chair, another jump-suited man leaps to his feet. Rey vaguely recognizes him from the storytelling team. “What – what the hell did I miss –?!”

“Newbie,” Dameron yells over the blaring music, as the other man rushes to strike a similar pose. _“Remember the rules!”_

Sharp nails sink into her wrist as Phasma suddenly pulls her back to where they’re standing. “Just follow our lead,” she hisses, “and _don’t talk back.”_

Like hell. They’re insane if they think Rey’s going to play along with any of this. Her imagination is _clearly_ a very disturbed place. When she wakes up from this nightmare, Rey is definitely going to be cutting back on the Stephen King novels. She waits until the music starts to fade – her co-workers still standing in their stiff, awkward salutes – and decides it’s the perfect time to make a run for it.

Before anyone can stop her, Rey breaks out into a sprint, dashing toward the door. She hears them cry out after her, but no one follows – _thank god_ – and she has nearly made it to the doorway when –

When she crashes into a solid brick wall. It has materialized out of thin air, directly in her path. As though to keep her trapped in this stupid place. Scowling, Rey steps back and rubs her sore nose, looking up to examine this new obstacle.

And finds herself staring directly into the mask of Kylo Ren.

“Well then.” The deep voice that comes through the mask is unrecognizable through its modulator, chasing an icy shiver down her spine. “The girl I’ve heard so much about.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is unfamiliar territory for me, so your feedback is deeply appreciated <3 Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

The day she arrives, she comes to him first.

Ben is sitting in his corner office. Dark, save for the glow of his dual monitor. The way he likes it. When there is a knock on his door, followed by a flood of fluorescent light from the open office space outside, Ben's whole body curls in on itself, flinching away from the intrusion. It takes a few moments for his eyes to adjust, glaring at the door as he prepares to rip apart the fool who's interrupted him -

Before her face sharpens into focus.

She is lovely. New. Ben has never seen her around here. He's certain he would have noticed - wouldn't have been able to stop staring, eyes following her around the break room. He hates interruptions almost as much as he hates the fluorescent lights outside his office, but this new girl gives him a smile like sunshine itself and Ben decides he doesn't mind.

And then Poe Dameron steps in beside her.

He's prattling on about introductions - MIT education, something about a memory allocation trick during her interview - but all Ben sees is Dameron's hand on her lower back. Familiar. _Possessive_ . Ben has been told all his life he's not good with social cues, but he picks up on _this_ one clear as day.

There is a beat, and Ben realizes they're waiting for him to respond.

"Great," is all he can think to say.

"I've played every one of your games," she says, beaming. "Even Star Quest."

"Must have visited a lot of yard sales for that one," Dameron says, grinning, and Ben's blood starts to boil.

"It's been my dream to work on your team," she is telling him. "Ever since I was a kid."

Ben fixes his gaze on his computer so that he doesn't smash something against Dameron's grinning face. There will be plenty of time for that later. Another silence stretches out again, and he looks back just in time to see her smile is faltering, hand outstretched... and withdrawing.

"Ben is a very busy man, Rey," Dameron tells her, as though they're sharing some private joke. "Hardly comes out of his cave here. Why don't we let the man keep making his magic while we grab some lunch?"

They don't close the door as they leave. Ben's grip is so tight around his mouse that he feels the plastic start to crack. He thinks about the way Dameron's face will look later, turning purple as he dangles upside-down from the ceiling.

The rage begins to abate a little.

Slowly, his gaze travels out to the rest of the office, lingering on where the girl is setting up her desk. From his chair, he has a direct line of sight.

He does not close the door.

Later, when Dameron sweeps her out to lunch, Ben opens up a new file.

* * *

"Rey."

Her name sounds so unnatural through that terrible mask. Rey tries to look brave as she glares into its faceless void. _A dream,_ she thinks. _It’s just a dream._

To her surprise, Kylo Ren starts to laugh.

"An honorable guess." His mask tilts, amusement subsiding. "But I believe _nightmare_ is the word you're looking for.”

Rey stumbles backward, shock rippling through her. _How…?_ She hadn’t spoken aloud – had she? No... she’s sure that she didn’t – but that could only mean… well, this _is_ a dream, Rey thinks frantically. She supposes anything could be possible -

“This is all so new to you. Frightening, even. It’s always this way.” He follows her backward, not allowing any space to grow between them. “Fortunately, you’ve caught me in a good mood. I’ll give you one last chance to join the others.”

A hysterical laugh bubbles out of her, unbidden. “That sounds great and all, but I was on my way back to my bunk. We’ll have to do a rain check. Hope you guys have a great time.”

She moves to walk around him – _just a dream, it’s just a dream_ – when he steps smoothly in her path.

“Don’t test my patience, Rey.” He looks down at her. At least, she assumes he’s looking at her. It’s hard to tell with that helmet on his head. “Make your choice wisely. I won’t ask you again.”

“Look, you’re really starting to creep me out. Whatever you guys are doing here, I’m not interested. So I’ll just be going now – _for real_ this time.”

Before she can lose her courage, Rey steps around him. She strides toward the door, quickening her pace as she approaches –

Until she isn’t anymore.

In fact, Rey isn’t moving at all.

It’s like her muscles have all stopped working. Her body is suspended in the air. Frozen. The only thing that seems to be working properly is her heart, which pounds an uncontrollable staccato in her chest.

To her horror, her body begins to turn. Slowly. Until she is face-to-face with Kylo Ren’s blank mask.

“I knew you’d be a difficult one to break,” he murmurs, almost tenderly, as he examines her frozen face. “But they always do, in the end.”

Suddenly, there is no air. Or maybe there still is, but Rey’s lungs can’t get to it. She tries to open her mouth to scream, but her mouth isn’t working - _nothing_ is working – just her lungs spasming desperately, her fingers tingling, the corners of her vision bleeding black. She is going to die like this, she realizes – and it’s suddenly the only thought she knows, a whirling spiral of panic – _she’s going to die she’s going to die she’s going to_ die die die _–_

Before her, Kylo is laughing. He bends over slightly, so that he is right in front of her twisted face. Tilts his helmet. “That’s the best part.” His voice seems to come from very far away. “You cannot die here, Rey. Although you will want to. Oh, yes, I can make it so that you are _desperate_ for death. Until you are are begging me to relieve you of this wretched existence. But I am not a kind man.”

A thick fog is settling over the world around her, softening its edges. His mask is all she can see.

“I would prefer to watch you suffer.”

Suddenly, her lungs are thrown wide open to a flood of cold, beautiful air. Rey gives a shuddering gasp and feels the life return to her, a burning rush in her veins. Whatever had been holding her in such an unnatural position gives way, and Rey crashes to the ground, coughing and swallowing huge gulps of oxygen as if she’d been drowning.

When the fog finally lifts, she can only see his boots, shiny and black on the floor.

“I can also be very generous.” A leather glove unfurls above her, extended. It takes her a moment to realize that it’s an offer. “Be good for your Supreme Leader, Rey, and he will reward you in kind.”

Her body is still shuddering uncontrollably as she glares up at him, eyes bloodshot and sore. With aching limbs, Rey pushes herself slowly to her feet. Ignoring his outstretched hand.

It takes great effort to resist the urge to spit at him as she staggers past.

Her pale-faced companions don’t meet her eye as she approaches. Cowards. Every single one of them. She had been choking to death - _she’d nearly died_ – and none of them had lifted a finger to help her.

_Perhaps that’s because they have known far worse punishment._

Rey’s not sure where the thought comes from. But it sends icy tendrils of fear crawling down her spine. Still shaking, she halts at the end of the line, then turns her gaze upward to glare murder at Kylo Ren.

“Very good, Rey.” His chilly amusement carries through the mask. Rey’s stomach turns. Slowly, Kylo walks toward them. His boots thudding on the floor. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

 _Fuck you,_ she thinks furiously. And because she is insane, she hopes that he can hear.

If he does, Kylo gives no indication of it. He begins to walk down the line, letting his icy gaze pass up and down each one of them in turn. Inspecting them.

When he stops in front of Rey, he lingers for a beat longer than the others.

"I think we can do better than that."

He has _got_ to be kidding. Rey's face is tense with how fiercely she glares at him. “I’m not going to bloody _salute_ you.”

“Come now, Rey.” He sounds almost sad as he studies her. “Don't make this harder than it needs to be.”

Huffing out an angry sigh, Rey lifts up her hand in a half-hearted imitation of her colleagues. She finds the sudden irritation rolling off him to be infinitely satisfying; her mouth tightens in an effort to contain her smirk.

"Phasma," he snaps suddenly, rounding on the woman beside her. "Step forward. Show her how it's done."

Phasma nearly trips over her feet to follow his directions. She turns to Rey, spine ramrod straight, hand trembling where it hovers stiffly near her temple. Her eyes are full of terror. A silent plea.

It makes Rey’s stomach twist with discomfort. Relenting, she tries her best to follow the woman’s lead, but it's hard to think when her head is still fuzzy with rage and lack of oxygen.

Kylo clicks his tongue. "What's the matter, Rey? Is she not providing a good enough example for you?"

He begins to circle his secretary, who pales under his gaze. Rey tries to stand firm, to contain her fear. She won't be intimidated. Even if it is only a dream.

"Ahh. Yes. I see the problem." He has paused at Phasma's side, his mask fixated on her trembling hand. "She won't hold still long enough for you to get a proper look."

Leaning forward, Kylo reaches out to touches the tip of her fingers with his leather glove. Phasma whimpers.

"I think we can fix that."

It starts with her bright pink fingernails, slowly draining of color until they are smooth and black. The plastic jewels clink to the floor as they slide off, one by one. And then it begins to crawl down her hand. Stiffening. The woman chokes on a scream.

With a rush of horror, Rey realizes that her arm is turning into stone.

 _"Please,"_ Phasma gasps, as her wrist begins to harden. "Please, Rey, just do what he says."

"There is no rush." Kylo Ren has stepped back to regard them both with cold amusement. "It'll reach her lungs first, but - well - you've already learned that oxygen isn't necessary to survive here."

Panic takes over. Rey looks desperately at her other companions, since Phasma is no longer holding a stable pose - sobbing openly as black marble steadily bleeds up her arm.

Rey straightens her spine. She stiffens her fingers. She raises her elbow until it is perpendicular to her side as Phasma starts to shriek.

"There!" Rey cries out with distress. "There, _please_ , there’s your salute - make it stop, please, I’m _doing_ it - I'll do whatever you say -"

All at once, Phasma's shrieks falter into soft whimpers. Rey sees with a punch of guilt that her hand and forearm have turned completely black. It nearly reaches her elbow.

 _Definitely_ no more Stephen King books when she wakes up. For the next year, at least. Maybe for the rest of her life.

"Much better." The murmur of his voice makes her skin prickle with revulsion. "I knew you could learn."

Rey doesn't respond, only stares back at him as bravely as she can. Chin jutted outward with defiance. She can almost feel his amusement as he gives her one last lingering look, before he steps down the line again.

Beside her, Phasma cradles her arm and moans.

“Let's try this again."

The air is thick with fear as Kylo Ren halts before them. Tilts his mask. Rey's not sure how she knows, but she's certain that he is smirking.

"Today, I think I’m in the mood for a hunt."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YIKES.
> 
> This is going to be a bumpy ride guys.
> 
> It's been a while since I've written anything like this, so your comments are giving me life. Thanks everyone who has left their support <3

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hello on [twitter](https://twitter.com/ohwise1ne)!


End file.
